Interesting but not near as good as American Tabloid.

"Three funeral shots. Three artful cuts. Three widows framed."

This is my second outing with the Reverend Ellroy's work, choosing to delve into the second entry of his Underworld U.S.A. trilogy. "American Tabloid" was both the first book I read this year AND the first Ellroy novel I read. I initially started "C6K" immediately after finishing the former, but I chose to read another book and put this off for another time. As the year progressed, I initially concluded that I'd read "C6K" next year, but once I got to meet Ellroy at an event for his most recent novel (and obsessively, autistically binged all his interviews and docs) I became determined to read another book of his. I have every single entry from the L.A. Quartet, his 4 most recent novels ("Perfidia", "This Storm", "Widespread Panic", and "The Enchanters") and of course his Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy. After reading Nathan Hill's wonderful "Wellness", I decided to read another 600-plus page book and go for "C6K"!!!! I read this book front to cover over a period of nearly 3 weeks, and I can say that I LOVED this fucking novel. Much has been made about Ellroy's heavy-lean into the staccato prose that he'd been developing years prior to this novel's publication (2001), and not all of it positive. Ellroy himself has said this book was a product of an overworked, emotionally and mentally taxed mind with a marriage on the rocks and a giant 5 month long book tour, and thus he has said that he maybe went too far with the staccato prose. Maybe that's true, but stylistically and THEMATICALLY this is one of the most audacious and moving books I've ever read. It's a moral vision of our country that I think in 2023 feels more eerily prescient, something that I think folks MAAAYYYYBEEE couldn't read well enough into 22 years ago. Granted the 60's were the 60's, and the 2o2o's are a unique time of it's own. But there's much I got out of this book that pertains to now: Apathetic self-interest (organized crime, angry or indifferent Euro-Americans of varying ethnicities) converging with racialized political demagogues (J. Edgar Hoover, Tricky Dick Nixon) to stymie progressive reform and civil rights. All in an effort to preserve the status quo and maintain the general state of plunder and exploitation. Now gangsters don't factor quite as heavily into national life now, and Nixon and Hoover are dusty, decaying relics long dead. But the white tribe politics and hostile attitude to growth and change remain, and are becoming more energized through bible-thumping Evangelism and fascistic screeds pushed by DeSantis or others. Bobby K and MLK died in the same year, when they were both promising to swing for the fences in their respective causes. They died. Promises and goals went unfulfilled, and we're still dealing with the fallout of the unfulfilled promise of the 60's. This is a work of fiction, and I don't truck with conspiracies, but Ellroy's has gifted us with, in my view, a potent and unsettling portrait of what our country is when it's at it's worst. It's a monumental novel that only makes me appreciate "American Tabloid" more and gets me even more hopped up to read "Blood's a Rover" next! In the words of Reverend "Dog" Ellroy, "YEAH!"

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So detailed I re-felt all the awful emotions of the MLK and RFK assassinations. Dark and brutal, this story weaves dozens of political and pop celebs into intrigue, blackmail, wiretapping, CIA "wet work" and good ole gumshoe muscle.